Green Room is a brilliantly gory, suspenseful horror indie – REVIEW

The director of “Blue Ruin” is back and finishing his inept character trilogy with a brilliantly gory horror indie

Writer and director Jeremy Saulnier’s claustrophobic punk rock neo-nazi horror indie stars Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots. This punk horror follows a poor punk band struggling to find gigs. Their desperation ends when they find a gig in a neo-nazi bar. This leads them witnessing a murder which leads the band being held hostage in that very small green room.

Green Room starts off as a very stylish and beautifully shot indie. We get to see the bands struggles before slowly building into a tense and surprisingly gory horror. Gory horror movies usually depend only on the gore which leads to the story suffering. This is not case here, because Green Room knows how to use the gore in a way to make the audience feel the horror the band members are feeling. The use of gore help sells the horrifying reality the band members are going through. The gore also helps move the story which is unique and creative.

The uniqueness of the story seems like a breath of fresh air. Horror movies these days usually revolve around paranormal entity that haunts the newly moved cliché family. Nevertheless, Jeremy Saulnier never dwells in clichés that long. The story never feels cliché, but the characters sometimes fall into 80s horror cliché. The characters are really incompetent which leads to bad decision-making. I am aware that your average person do not make the best of decision under extreme pressure. However, I do not think your average person will not make bad decision after bad decision. I am aware that the director has acknowledge the fact the his characters are in fact really stupid, but I feel like it is just a lazy excuse to advance the story.

Patrick Stewart is a highlight in this movie for sure. His character is a creepy and terrifying neo-nazi and he does a stellar job acting this character. The down side is the audience never really gets to see his character a lot and the movie does not do a good job selling his character in the end, he is just another character that should have had more screen time.

The subtleness of introducing this neo-nazi bar was perfectly executed. Confederate flags and nazi signs are eye-catching symbols in almost every scene. The audience can really get to know what kind of people they are. Nonetheless, the movie never shows just how dangerous or disturbing the neo-nazi movement can be. Yes, they pose a threat but a couple of scenes could have been added to show what kind of movement the punk band was dealing with. It was a real waste to think this creative and unique idea was not explored.

Saulnier never apologizes for things that the audience witnesses. Instead, he delivers a horror indie that keeps on getting better the more the audience gets invested. Despite dumb characters, Green Room still holds strong and serves a cautious reminder of how bigotry can quickly turn violent.